R.I.P. Patrice O’Neal

Comedian Patrice O’Neal died last night, one month after suffering a massive stroke. The longtime Comedy Central presence had previously battled diabetes, which served as the butt of several jokes in his final TV appearance, the roast of Charlie Sheen. He was 41.

O’Neal’s TV credits included a stint on “The Office,” regular appearances on “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn,” and a memorable one-off as the pyromaniac T-Bone in “Arrested Development” (There’s always money in the banana stand). He was also the second-best part about In the Cut (banner image & video below), which reminds me: R.I.P. Meg Ryan’s original face.

He had a bit in his standup a few years ago, about how no guy has ever been hanging out with all his friends and wished his girlfriend was there… just absolutely nailed how I felt about relationships at the time. RIP.

I’ve never been one to self promote on here, but I felt the need to show what I posted on my blog. There’s some classic bits of him with Opie & Anthony for download the deserve to be heard. There was so much more to Patrice than just Pitbull and Elephant In The Room.

Here’s my question : when dudes like this, or Giraldo die, everyone and their mother come out and say they were geniuses.

I had heard of both Patrice and Giraldo before their death, but not until they died did everyone come out of the woodwork and give them the props they were apparently due.

So… what hte fuck people. If you have a comedian who is Christ incarnate of comedy, TELL THE FUCKING WORLD before they kick the bucket, for fucks sake. I’m sick of hearing of these people only after they bite it.

If anyone listened to O&A today, Bull Burr called in and told a story about when Patrice met with execs at Comedy Central about doing a pilot he spent the entire meeting bashing the execs for putting the Mind of Mencia on the air. His career was definitely on his own terms and I will miss hearing his laugh so much. I think someone put today’s O&A up on YouTube. A ton of comedians were in studio or called in to talk about him and it was really great to listen to.